I felt this deserved its own thread, but it does tie into the Nikkei article.

Sterling apparently has his own sources within Konami and he offers them for what they're worth...

Basically, first they take criticism with the Nikkei article suggesting that some stories in there about lunch breaks and liking facebook posts are exaggerated.

However, there are much worse things going on that Nikkei doesn't go into about the way Konami treats its employees and creators.

Konami doesn't want to give creators any recognition for their contributions.

Aside from the latest with Kojima, this sort of thing is why multiple creators have left Konami over the years... that includes Akira Yamaoka.

Konami also has a disastrous setup where different divisions in the company cannot communicate with each other.

Even more ridiculous is the suggestion that Konami Corporate itself does COMPLETE 180s with regards to its corporate plans and future direction! This part to me is ridiculous buisiness-wise, but also makes sense of why the previous fiscal years Konami will give Hideo Kojima the green-light to create FOX Engine, MGSV and Silent Hills, only to completely axe that at the last minute when all this news broke completely out of the blue.

While we can't say Sterling's sources are 100% legit, the last portion there seems like the only thing that makes sense of the situation as we've seen it unfold.

With everything we've learned I wouldn't be surprised that Tom Huelett and others were put through a similar ringer and had to bite the bullet when fans tore into them when in fact Tom and others could do nothing due to Konami decisions.

I trust Jim Sterling enough that he wouldn't put information like this out there without trusting his sources entirely. There's always two sides to every incident, but with everything that has been unearthed through Jim Sterling, Nikkei, superbunnyhop, and literally anyone who actually does some journalistic digging into the company has painted a very clear picture that something is wrong over there. I seriously doubt Konami higher-ups are every going to come out and give their side of this story, so this is all we have to go off of.